Chapter 4

I made it back to the dorm room to see that most of the people had left except Tess. She and Adam were making out on the couch. He had his hand on her hip, so as I walked by I slid it up on her tit.

He immediately moved it away. At that point, he became so flustered inside that all he could think of was to apologize for my actions. However, she surprised him by grabbing his hand; putting it back on her tit, winking at me, and going right back to kissing Adam. I made sure that I closed the door loudly, so they could hear it.

Saturday was usually a day I didn't Erg. But I'd been traveling for two months, so I did my intervals, then showered, and got ready for breakfast. I try to follow a healthy diet during the week, but Saturdays I eat a big breakfast. I was in the middle of the pile of food in front of me when Tess and Julie sat down across from me.

Tess asked, "Where's Adam?"

"He died, and went to heaven last night. I haven't seen him since he was with the angel on our couch."

"You must've worn him out," Julie added.

"If I wore him out, and he missed breakfast, then I don't expect to see Mika until Wednesday."

They both laughed as they picked at their fruit salad and cottage cheese.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the dorm Olympics started at one. I stopped and joined a pick-up game of basketball, for an hour or so, and then went over to the football field to watch the events. I was hungry again, and thought about lunch, but remembered the oyster eating competition at three.

They ran different races. Some were competitive, and some were silly; like running around a baseball bat ten times, then trying to run back, and touch the next person in line without falling down.

When the oyster competition got ready to start, I made my way to the area where they planned to hold it. I'd eaten oysters with both Mom and Dad all over the world, and I loved the things. I could tell that my competition wasn't as excited, and some had never seen, or tried one before. As I looked over the competition, one guy looked like a good eater.

They lined us up, and set three dozen down in front of each person. I recognized the girl next to me, as one of the girls that lived across from Mika. We had ten minutes to eat, as many as we could.

All of them were on the half shell, which meant slurping them out of the shell. I took off my shirt, so I wouldn't make a mess of it. When they said, "Go" I started to knock them back. For lunch, I'm used to ordering a dozen or two, so three wasn't going to kill me. I started fast, and I just kept going. After I finished my three dozen in around six minutes, I still had room for more. So I started to help Kimberly with hers. She'd managed to eat six before I finished, so I ate a dozen of hers while she ate six more. In the end, she still finished third. I finished first while the eater had finished twenty-six, for second place. There was some complaining about me helping, but the judge thought it was funny, so they went on to the next event.

Kimberly thanked me for the help. She told me that she'd missed the sign up meeting, and they put her in the event without asking her. She wasn't a big fan of oysters. Adam came up, and said, "As an RA, my team is one win for one event."

"I'm glad you made it out of bed, my fearless leader."

"Good job taking down the oysters. Most kids don't eat them, as well as you did."

"I still have the water balloon toss, but I don't know who my partner is."

He pulled out his sheet, and told me that I had one event between the oysters and the balloon toss. We sat up in the stadium, and cheered on our dorm. Our dorm finished second in the three-legged race.

The water balloon toss was a bust after our third toss. I threw it, he caught it, and it busted. We did everything right, but still finished in the middle of the pack. I stayed and cheered on my dorm, and by the end of the day, I learned that we were in second place, but not too far out of first.

The school brought in a ton of pizzas for dinner, so we sat on the lawn, and shared pizza out of the box. I was sitting with Adam when Mika bent over me from behind, and kissed the top of my head. "Thanks for helping on the oysters; my dorm is in third place instead of fifth, because of it."

"You know that I'll do anything for a pretty girl."

"You think Kimberly is pretty?"

"I think every girl in your dorm is pretty, and I'd appreciate a kiss from any that want to give me one. If any want to thank me more intimately they'll experience some great pleasure."

"I'll pass the word along."

She sat down, took a piece of pizza from the box, and seemed to nibble at it. I just sat there watching her since I wasn't that hungry, and enjoyed just a single piece. I lay back on the grass, and rested my eyes. Mika put her head on my chest, and rested, as well.

It was thirty minutes later that I looked up to see that most of the kids had gone. What I saw all around me, were pizza boxes everywhere. I picked up the one next to me, and then a couple more. Mika helped me, as we joined a few faculty members in picking up a couple hundred boxes. We took them to the dumpster by the gym.

Several other kids saw what we were doing, and stayed around to help. When we finished the teachers that were working there thanked all of us for our help.

As we were walking back, I asked Mika if she wanted to come up to my room. She told me that she couldn't, because she was going to see her roommate and the girls from her dorm. When I got off the elevator in my dorm on the third floor, and started to walk through the commons, I saw a baseball game on the TV. I sat down, and started watching it with a couple of guys. The Dodgers lost to the Reds four to one.

I went up to my room after the game, and there was a crowd gathered. They seemed disappointed when they saw that I was alone. The Kiss' Destroyer album was playing, and the vodka was on the counter. I got a Coke from the fridge, and pulled over a chair from the kitchen table before asking what was going on.

"We were just talking about school starting in two days, and that all the parties and play time will be over. Speaking of play time, where's your girlfriend?"

"I don't have a girlfriend. I just got here a couple of days ago."

"What about Mika?"

"We're just friends."

Julie said, "That isn't what it sounded like last night."

"What did it sound like to you?"

"It sounded like she was your girlfriend."

"You just heard a girl with an itch that was in a place that she couldn't reach to scratch herself. What I did was I helped her out. If you had an itch, I'd help you too."

"We always come back to you offering to scratch my itch."

"You can take care of your own itches. I'm not twisting your arm. I think that I'll go take a shower, and head to bed. You all have a nice night."

The next morning we held the finishing part of the dorm Olympics. Our team finished second, while Mika's dorm finished third. Our prize was to have another pizza party in a couple of weeks. That morning, I didn't row. Instead, I did some push-ups and sit-ups along with a five-mile run.

When I returned from my run, Adam was trying to understand the first chapter of his Calculus book. By the time I was out of the shower, he had finished his goal. He asked if I wanted to play a game of chess.

"What's it going to cost me, Mr. Chess club?"

"We can play for fun, or you can pick the wager."

"I'm not hungry, and we have some snacks if we do feel hungry later. Let's play that you have twenty seconds to move. For every pawn I take you take a half shot, and for every piece off the back line I take, you take a full shot. Two shots if you lose. I take half of whatever I just said for you. We'll play a first game like that, and then replace the shots with ten-dollar bills for the next game."

"I haven't had anything to drink yet, and I have to write down those rules."

"Just set up the board, and I'll search out the whiskey."

Adam knows his chess, but he has to analyze the board, and all the possible moves to make his move. Given that he'd now have only twenty seconds, there was no way that he could do that. He beat me in the first game, but he still drank seven total shots to my four. I've grown since leaving Japan, and I'm just hitting six feet tall. Adam has topped out at five feet. His body mass was feeling the effects of the shots.

The alcohol and time restraints made the second game even fairer. I didn't win the game, but still netted twenty bucks. I told him that if we both drank two shots, I'd play him again for cash. He was having fun, so we did it. The game turned out not the quiet, and composed chess match that you'd typically see. It was more like watching a horse race with a lot of pointing and shouting.

When the phone rang, Adam walked over to answer it, but twenty seconds later, I moved again, and he yelled at me to, "Hold the fuck up, and quit cheating you scum bag."

My clock kept ticking, and he saw me go to move again. He told whoever was on the phone to come over and wait at the door until he finished kicking my ass. When he hung up the phone, he ran back. He made a move ahead of me, but it was the wrong move, and as a result, I took his queen, and as the saying goes, 'the rest was history'.

He started to bitch and moan, but took his defeat and paid the debt. Afterwards, he left to let Tess and Julie in. I could hear them coming up the stairs.

"I was playing Nick in speed chess, and we had time limits for our turns. He didn't stop my clock when I got up to answer the phone, so I missed my turn, and then screwed up the next one."

Tess said, "That little brat. You just had to answer the phone."

When they came through the door, Tess was about to say something when I cut her off. I said, "I think that you should play Adam in chess to let him win back some of the hundred dollars he lost to me, because of you. You owe him big time. Either that or you can take him in the other room to kiss it, and make it better."

Tess almost said something nasty, but instead said, "Let's get high, then I can take you in the other room, and make it up to you."

Adam smiled, and went to move the chessboard off the coffee table. I took a couple of hits, but I wasn't used to the smoke. While I was still in Japan, Billy Carter and I drank enough at parties to find ourselves in trouble. Those times gave me enough experiences to become used to alcohol. But we didn't have access to the pot over there as they did here in the States.

After each of the girls had a drink, and they finished off two joints, Tess took Adam into the other room, and they closed the door. Julie was high and sitting on the couch next to me.

"Do you want to listen to something quiet, or do I need to put on some AC/DC to mask the screams coming from Tess and Adam?"

Julie replied, "I don't know. This is their first time. Adam is so outgoing and funny, but shy when it comes to girls. It's important that you know that if you hadn't moved in this year, he'd still be sitting around making eyes at Tess, just like he did all last year."

As I was looking through his collection of records, I found a Police album Outlandos D'Amour, so I put it on the turntable. I mixed a new drink for Julie and me, and sat back on the couch before taking a sip.

We sat looking at each other, for a minute, before she said, "You're a strange one, Nick. You're very strange. As a freshman, who's away from home for the first time with new people, and a new school, you should be crying how you miss your mommy, and want to go home. Instead of being afraid, you tell a cop to go jump in a lake, or call the President of the United States, but you're too busy to wait around."

"In the last fourteen years, I've lived in four different countries. I've met presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, and queens. A couple of high school kids or local cops don't really worry me. Mika actually has diplomatic immunity here. Her dad is responsible for the economy of Japan. I do miss home, but my parents sent me here to receive an education, and sow some wild oats. I start the education tomorrow, and I started sowing a little earlier."

"I still don't feel comfortable making out with a freshman, but my sister will start here next year, so if you like young pretty girls, I'll make sure you meet her."

"If she's half as pretty as you, then I won't let you leave without introducing us."

"You say the sweetest things to me. I just wonder when you're telling the truth, and when you're just using your pick up lines."

"For you, beautiful, they're the same. I don't have to lie or twist the truth when I talk about how pretty you are."